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Several years ago, I filmed a debate — part of our long-cancelled wheels.ca “Smackdown” series — that I have been regretting ever since.

“Smackdown” was when I would argue with people like freelance writer Mark Richardson or the Star’s Urban Affairs columnist Christopher Hume about things like “should trucks be allowed on expressways during rush hour?” and “is it really necessary for builders of downtown condominiums to provide parking spaces for owners?”

The one I regret was about winter tires. Resolved: are winter tires (or snow tires) necessary in Toronto?

Usually when we did “Smackdown,” it was easy to debate a point of view. For instance, when it comes to cars, Christopher Hume and I never have, don’t now and never will see eye-to-eye. But there were times when Richardson and I agreed on something and yet one of us would have to argue “the other side.” So we’d flip a coin.

The day we decided it was time to discuss “are winter tires necessary in Toronto?” I lost the toss.

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With a straight face, I made the case that if you only drive in the city of Toronto in winter, all-season radials are all you need. I even went on radio and television — the Dale Goldhawk Show on Rogers cable was one — and insisted that I knew what I was talking about.

But I was very uncomfortable the whole time.

As a result, I vowed never to do that again — and I haven’t.

But today, I have to set the record straight.

I believe that everybody in Canada should have winter tires on their car or truck.

I own winter tires and they are on my car right now. They go on every year at the beginning of November and come off every year on or around April 15. My all-season radials are fine for the months in between but not for when the snow flies.

Last week, on Wednesday, there was a prime example of why everybody should have winter tires on their vehicles. Just as the rush hour started, light snow started to fall and it was windy. Before you could say, “Holy cow, I forgot to put on my snow tires,” there was chaos.

It took people hours and hours to get home. If there was a hill, nobody could drive up it. Their tires just spun; they had no grip — which would probably not have been the case if they’d had winter tires, specifically ones designed to increase grip on ice.

I did what I thought was a very smart thing. When I saw that the traffic on the Gardiner and Lake Shore Blvd. W. wasn’t moving at all, I left my car downtown and took the GO train home. And as we passed all the major roads on the way out to the suburbs, I was astounded to see that it was gridlock everywhere. I thanked my lucky stars I had such a swell alternative.

But tens of thousands of people didn’t. They were trapped in their cars, or on buses and streetcars, that were being held up by cars that didn’t have snow tires and, as a result, were interfering with everybody else.

And so I came to another conclusion: the government of Ontario should make winter tires mandatory. If a minority of car drivers can make life miserable for the majority of responsible car owners and transit users, then the government has to step in to make sure calamities like these aren’t repeated.

They did it in Quebec and, according to friends who live there, they don’t have the sort of complete breakdown on the roads we experienced around here last Wednesday. As one guy said to me, “It’s not so much the snow tires. The fact that everybody has them on their cars gives their drivers the confidence they need to drive properly when there’s snow falling. They know they’ve got the tools to do the job.”

There isn’t a minute to lose. Queen’s Park should act immediately. We’ve got a lot of winter ahead of us. And it’s already started.

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